The great thing about cooking is the experimentation and the praise you receive when you turn out yet another fabulous meal or dessert.
What isn't so great is the mess left behind that you will have to tidy up later.
In the past, life was so much easier.
There were servants and kitchen staff who took care of all the preparation, cooking and cleaning up.
How great would that be now? No cleaning and tidying afterwards, just enjoying the meal and not having to worry about the rest.
The lesser classes didn't suffer from this problem either as they could afford neither servants nor expensive meals.
Those energy saving devices that we all have in our kitchens; mixers, blenders etc add to this problem even more.
These all need to be carefully cleaned too as well as all the pots and pans that are stacked by the sink.
Kitchen mess is embarrassing; we don't like others to see how untidy we are.
If you are lucky enough to afford servants then it isn't an issue, but the majority of us can't, so it is.
I've tried various things over the years, mostly unsuccessfully.
The one I'm going to tell you about now however seems to have made life an awful lot easier, so why not give it a try yourself.
This is a very simple principle, much advocated by those in the catering trade.
You wash as you go, as you finish with each pot, pan, appliances etc, wash it straight away.
Keep your work tops tidy as you too and when you leave the kitchen, you know it's in a fit state for anyone to enter.
So know you know that leaving everything until the end is just putting off the inevitable and they will probably be harder to clean by then as whatever is on them will have hardened.
Clean each piece as you go and when you finish cooking, there'll be no tidying up to do.